Being You
by dr. kitten
Summary: What if Nami were Zoro, and vice versa? Oneshot. After discovering a mysterious "Friendship Ball", Nami and Zoro are forced to inhabit each other's bodies for an entire day! Please R&R ... rated T for language/adult themes


Being With You

11/17/09

A Zoro/Nami fanfic

**Thank you to all the people who reviewed! I apologize for any errors, since I have only watched a few episodes of One Piece. Please continue to read and review ... suggestions and comments are much appreciated!!! (Depending on the reception this story gets, I might write a longer, more detailed one if I get a good idea)**

The day was bright and beautiful, with no clouds to mar the perfect sapphire sky. The dense jungle of the island was pristine; exotic flowers bloomed on every bush, and blue-and-red parrots called insults to each other from the trees.

Eight trails of footsteps led from a longboat at the tide-line up the smooth sands of the beach and into the jungle. In the distance, the happy shouts of the crew of the pirate ship Going Merry could be heard echoing through the trees.

"Hey, guys, do you think we'll find any treasure?" the rubbery captain asked as he peered inquisitively under a bush.

"Even if we don't, we'll at least get a chance to restock our stores of food and fresh water," the blond cook reasoned, already making a mental list of what he'd need.

Luffy's brain went into overdrive as he immediately connected the word "food" with the one thing in the world that meant the most to him (besides his straw hat and his nakama, of course) …

"Meat!" he shouted, dancing around and catching Sanji in a stretchy hug. "Meat, meat, meat, mea-"

"Shut up!" his crewmates cried in unison as they smacked him over the head.

"Oh!" Chopper exclaimed suddenly, looking around with a worried expression on his face. "Where are Nami and Zoro?"

"Knowing them," Usopp laughed, "Nami is off finding the island's treasure, and Zoro is lost."

"Oi, Zoro, Nami … are you guys anywhere around here? Oi!" So shouting, Luffy charged off into the forest, with the others trying to keep up.

_Meanwhile, a little ways to the west …_

"Ah! I've finally found it," the orange-haired navigator whispered as she put down her shovel and surveyed the results of her half-hour of digging. She brushed a hand across her forehead and sighed in contentment. A small wooden chest, fortified with iron, sat in front of her.

Of course, Nami had known all along where the treasure of the island was located. And of course she had been planning to inform her crewmates … eventually. But first, she was going to claim her fair share, before they got their greedy hands on it.

"Come to Nami, my beauties," the navigator whispered, reaching for the chest. Her heart beat fast at the thought of gold and silver, pearls and jewels. Slowly, she opened the lid.

"Huh?" she gasped. The only thing that the chest contained was a fist-sized white ball that seemed to be made of some sort of crystal. It was packed in straw, and there was a small brochure accompanying it that said: _The Friendship Ball: promotes greater understanding and closeness between comrades. _

Nami shrugged and picked up the ball. It was icy to the touch, and she felt a little shiver pass down her spine. "Well, I don't really get it, but … it might be worth something, so it's mine!"

"Eh, Nami, is that you?" Someone spoke right behind her, causing her to jump and hide the ball under her skirt. Turning around, she saw her crewmate Zoro. The green-haired swordsman was looking at her with suspicion.

"Eh heh heh …" Nami's weak laugh trailed away quickly. "Zoro, what are you doing here?"

He scowled. "I'm heading back to the boat."

Nami's shoulders sagged. "Zoro … the _Going Merry_ is in the opposite direction."

"Like I need you to tell me that!" he shouted. "I knew that! I was just trying to make sure that you weren't stealing anything! Huh? What's that?" he asked as he caught sight of the open treasure chest.

"N-nothing!" she said quickly. "It was like that when I got here."

"Then why is there dirt on your knees and hand?" he asked. "And … what are you holding?" He made a sudden grab for her concealed hand. She pulled it away at the last second, and he seized her leg instead. Realizing his mistake, he jerked his hand away and glared at her.

"What is that?" he asked, pointing at the ball.

Nami scowled. "It's mine. I found it. So … nyahh!" She stuck out her tongue at him and tried to scramble away, but the swordsman was too fast. Grabbing her wrist with one hand, he seized the crystal globe with the other and tried to wrest it from her grasp.

There was a brilliant flash of light.

When the brightness cleared from his eyes, Zoro realized that something was different. He was shorter. And … his hair was longer. And …

"Ahhhhh!" Nami screamed. Except that it was not her voice. It was deep and masculine.

Hearing the scream, Zoro's hand instantly jumped to his swords, only to find that they were missing from his side. Instead, he managed to grab his own waist, which had suddenly become very slender and … feminine.

Zoro looked at Nami. Nami looked at Zoro. Or rather, they each looked at their own body, which was somehow not theirs anymore.

Zoro was the first to speak. "Nami," he said in a low dangerous voice (which somehow sounded less intimidating since it was coming from a woman). "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT THING YOU PICKED UP?!"

"I … I don't know," Nami gasped. She clapped a hand to her mouth … a large, suntanned hand.

"Well, obviously something happened," Zoro said, "because I'm you, and you're … me." He looked down at his now slim, rounded, and attractive body and then back at Nami, who was suddenly tall, muscular, and green-haired.

She (or should it be 'he' now? Even their voices had changed) bent down and picked up the crystal ball, which had fallen to the ground during their transformation. "It seemed to happen when we both touched it," she said (in Zoro's voice!). "So maybe if we both touch it again, we'll change back." Shaking slightly, she offered the ball to him. He (with Nami's hand!) reached out and grabbed it.

Nothing happened.

"It didn't work," he said.

"I know," she replied. Then suddenly she frowned (with Zoro's mouth!) and said, "Wait a minute … there was some sort of pamphlet that came with it. Maybe it'll explain what's going on." She fished around in the treasure chest until she came up with a piece of paper.

'_Greetings, lucky friends,' _she read slowly. _'You have stumbled upon the Friendship Ball. Your life is about to change!' _

"I liked my life perfectly fine, dammit!" Zoro growled, crossing his (Nami's!) arms. "No change was necessary."

"Shut up and let me finish reading," Nami replied. "Okay. _The purpose of the Friendship Ball is to promote understanding in comrades who have a difficult time getting along.'_"

"We get along fine, don't we, Nami?" Zoro said.

The girl (who was now a man) rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sure. Let's see. She read further along and her eyes widened in dismay. "Oh no!"

"What?' Zoro asked, concerned.

"It's says we'll have to stay like this for an entire … _day_!" Nami wailed. Tears gathered at the corners of her eyes and she stomped her foot.

"Hey, hey, don't cry!" Zoro said quickly. When she gave him a surprised look, he scowled and added, "It makes me look bad."

"Idiot!" she yelled. "How do you think I feel, watching you walk around in my beautiful body?"

"How do _you _feel!" he shouted. "What about me? I don't want you in my body either … and you'd better not touch my swords!"

"Now that you mention it," Nami said, looking down at the three deadly weapons strapped to her (Zoro's!) waist. "How do you stand walking around with these all the time? They're so uncomfortable."

"Oh yeah?" Zoro challenged. "Well, your breasts are more uncomfortable." He poked one irritably.

Nami shrieked and slapped him. Of course, she hadn't reckoned on being in control of Zoro's superior strength. She watched in dismay as her body went flying and smashed into a palm tree.

"Owww," Zoro complained as he dragged himself upright. "That hurt, you idiot. You're only damaging your own body when you hit me, you know."

"Well, you shouldn't have touched me!" she growled. Then she got an evil smirk on her face and sighed, rubbing her hands up and down her (Zoro's!) muscular arms. Then she stroked her own cheek and, finally, licked her lips.

"Hey, that's called molestation, you pervert!" Zoro shouted. Then he grinned as well. "What if I do this?" And he reached up and squeezed the ample breasts that his body now possessed.

"You … you … what I did wasn't nearly that bad!" Nami protested. She put her finger in her mouth and licked it thoroughly, then rubbed it along her jawline. Zoro promptly slapped his own ass. Nami promptly slapped _him, _sending him flying away again.

"You WITCH!" he cried, jumping up. "What the hell was that for?"

Nami glared at him. "Don't touch me."

He glared back. "Don't touch _me!" _

"I won't!"

"Well, neither will I!"

"Fine, then!"

"Okay, okay, you win," the swordsman (who was now the navigator) groaned. "Read the rest of the paper so we can go about getting out of this mess."

Nami looked at the pamphlet in her hand. "Well," she said after a moment, "It seems that the only way we can get the transformation undone is to be in the same room at midnight tonight. Then we'll go back to normal."

"That's all right, then," Zoro said.

"Well …" Nami hesitated. "There's only one problem."

"What's that?"

"If we're not both in the same room at midnight exactly, then … we'll never go back to normal."

"Crap!" Zoro cried. Grabbing Nami's hand (which was actually his own) he began pulling her towards the ship, only to find that he was getting nowhere. Nami wasn't moving.

_Dammit! _he thought. _While I'm in Nami's untrained body, I'm not nearly as strong as I would be normally. I can't do anything. _

"Why won't you move?" he growled, digging her in the ribs with his elbow.

Nami sighed. "Zoro … the beach is in the other direction. Look, why don't you just let me lead?"

_Meanwhile, back on the Going Merry …_

"It's been a while. I hope nothing happened to them," Robin said as she scanned the shore with a telescope.

"That Marimo had better not have done anything to my Nami-swan!" Sanji cried, tears of love forming in his visible eye.

"Nami wouldn't be safer with anyone else," Chopper said shyly. "Zoro is probably just helping her carry back the treasure."

"Look!" Usopp cried. "I see them!" He pointed towards the jungle, where two small figures emerged, headed towards the Going Merry. They appeared to be arguing, for they were shouting and gesturing wildly.

The Straw-hat Gang was then privy to an enormously strange scene.

"For the last time, you thick-headed dolt, I told you that I'm going the right way!" Zoro cried, dragging a struggling Nami behind him.

"But … I could have sworn that I saw the turn-off for the beach a little while back," Nami protested.

Zoro sighed and slapped a hand against his head. "You fool."

"Oi, shitty-swordsman, don't go mistreating my precious Nami-swan!" Sanji shouted. For some reason, the navigator jerked her head up and glared at the ship for a few seconds before gasping and turning to poke Zoro.

"Oh, uh … right, I won't," Zoro called back.

"Eh?" Luffy whispered to Usopp. "Do you think Zoro's feeling well?"

As the pair drew closer, the Straw-hat Gang could see that their behavior was indeed odd. Both walked with a kind of jerky, uncomfortable gait and shot angry glances at each other every few seconds. As they ascended the side of the ship, Luffy called, "Oi Zoro … is everything okay?"

Zoro jumped. "Y-yeah, everything's fine, Luffy."

"Oh, my beautiful Nami-swan!" Sanji cried as the navigator appeared on deck. He darted forward and tried to hug her, but …

"Get away, you freak!" Nami screeched, kicking the cook in the stomach. The crew gasped, Sanji stared (from the ground, of course) and Zoro looked pained.

"Leave Sanji-kun alone, you dolt," the swordsman said. Grabbing Nami, he dragged her away to the navigator's quarters and slammed the door.

There was complete silence on deck, broken by the sound of Chopper hurrying to Sanji's side.

"Are you all right?" he wailed, inspecting the injured cook. To everyone's relief, Sanji seemed more upset about the fact that his darling "Nami-swan" had called him a freak than that he'd been kicked.

"Maybe it's … you know … her time of the month?" Usopp suggested.

"But Nami isn't the only one acting strange," Robin pointed out. "Swordsman-san was very polite to Cook-san."

"And he was telling Nami the right way to go," Luffy added sensibly. "Isn't he supposed to be the one with the bad sense of direction?"

The rest of the crew nodded. "Yep. Something strange is definitely going on."

_Meanwhile, in the navigator's cabin …_

"Zoro, you really should have been more careful," Nami whispered to the swordsman … or rather, to herself. "We have to act normal, or everyone will start to suspect us."

"Well, what was I supposed to do?" Zoro grumbled. "That stupid cook was flying at me with hearts in his eyes. I wasn't about to stand there and let him do … well, whatever he was planning on doing. And while we're talking about acting normal, you shouldn't have been so nice to him. I never would have done that."

"Well, excuse me for caring about my friends," Nami snapped. "I just felt bad for him after _you_ decided to put _my_ foot through his stomach, that's all."

Against his will, Zoro felt a twinge of jealously forming. "Whatever," he whispered. "All we've got to do is make it through the day, and we're good to go. But we can't stay holed up in here. That would be really suspicious … people might think we're having an affair."

"What a horrible thought!" Nami exclaimed. "Like I would!"

"Hey, I'm not so keen on you either," Zoro retorted. "Just so you know, I'd rather not be stuck in your body for the whole day."

"Well, who'd want to be you?" Nami said. "It's not like you're attractive or anything, with your mossy hair and your stupid face and your …" She stopped abruptly, realizing that she had been about to say, "and your incredible muscles_." No way_! she thought fiercely. _I absolutely do not feel that way about him. He's my nakama … my really annoying nakama … and nothing else!_

"-hate the clothes you wear," Zoro was saying. "Why would I want to be showing off my breasts to the whole world?"

Nami glared at him, all thoughts of his attractiveness flying out of her head instantly. "Well, you could do with wearing a little less," she said. "You've got no sense of fashion. In fact …" And before he could stop her, she took off her shirt and sat there, her (or his) bare chest gleaming in the sunlight.

"I can do that too," Zoro replied, and began unbuttoning Nami's striped top. She gave a panicked cry and reached out to stop him, but …

"Oh. Oh dear. I'm so sorry."

A perplexed Robin stood in the doorway, staring down at the strange scene: Zoro with his shirt off leaning over and holding onto Nami, who's shirt was half-undone. They both blinked up at her for a moment before springing apart. Nami (or Zoro as it were) re-buttoned her shirt with incredible speed, while Zoro pulled his white t-shirt over his head again.

"This is absolutely not what you think it is," the swordsman (Nami!) said once he was fully dressed again. "I was really overheated, so I just decided to cool down a little."

"Yeah, and I …" Zoro paused, his mind fumbling for an excuse as to why his (Nami's!) shirt was partially unbuttoned.

"She had a burn on her shoulder, and she was going to show it to me," Nami said quickly. Robin gave her an odd look.

"A burn? Nami, are you all right?" she said. "Maybe you should go see Chopper."

Zoro shrugged. "I'm fine." Too late, he realized that this would probably not be Nami's reaction in the same situation. "I mean … ow!" he wailed, grabbing his arm. "It hurts. Na- … uh, Zoro, I'll see you later. Bye!" He jumped up and ran out the door.

"Dammit," he muttered to himself once he was safe on deck. "This is going to be harder than I thought."

Amazingly, they made it through the day without killing each other, although there were some close calls. Nami (as Zoro) said something exceedingly nautical and ate a mikan. Zoro (as Nami) tried unsuccessfully to train with his weights (the smallest of which he was unable to lift) and took a long nap on deck. Both were glad that the crew hadn't gotten into any battles that day.

They met at ten o'clock (just to be on the safe side) in the bathroom, where they figured that no one would walk in on them.

"Man, I'll be glad to have my own body back!" Zoro exclaimed as they sat together - near enough that they could be interpreted as "together" but far enough that neither one of them really felt it.

"Me too," Nami replied. "It's terrible trying to be you. I found myself constantly having to act stupider than I actually am."

Zoro bristled at the insult. "Well, I didn't enjoy my day either," he shot back. "You're too weak, and I had to keep that idiotic love-cook from chasing me all day."

"But I do have to admit one thing," Nami said, ignoring his comment about "weak". "In a way, the Friendship Ball actually worked. I mean, it did make us cooperate for an entire day."

"I guess you're right," Zoro said, closing his eyes and leaning back against the wall.

"So, all in all, it wasn't so bad," Nami said thoughtfully. "I mean … I do understand you better after being you for an entire day."

Zoro opened his eyes. "Oh yeah? What about me do you understand?"

To his surprise, Nami looked a little shy. "Well," she murmured, placing her hand over her heart. "I think … at some point, I could feel a little of the spirit that drives you to become the best swordsman in the world. It was just for a moment, but I … well, I sort of realized just how much you do for the crew, always protecting us. Protecting me."

Zoro, shocked to hear such a kind speech from the peppery navigator, said, "It's just what I do best. But …" he hesitated. "I guess I understand you better too. Or rather, I finally understand what it feels like to need to be protected. Honestly, it scared me … being stuck in your body. I felt so weak and helpless, like I couldn't rely on the strength that I'd worked so hard to build up. I couldn't help but think that we were totally screwed if we ran into any other pirates today."

Nami laughed. "Yeah, I guess Luffy and the others would have gotten quite the surprise when "Zoro the Demon" wasn't even able to use a sword."

"Well, they would have been surprised to learn that "Nami-swan" can't navigate," Zoro replied.

"I guess that just goes to show you," Nami said, "that we really do need each other after all."

_Several hours later …_

Zoro woke with a start to realize that things were back to normal. He was his regular super-strong, muscular, sword-wielding, green-haired self again. He glanced up at the faint light coming through the windows and dimly recalled falling asleep the previous night while waiting for the change to take place.

Suddenly, he noticed that there was something warm and heavy in his arms. Glancing down, he saw Nami sprawled across his lap, sleeping peacefully. His arms were wrapped around her narrow waist, and her head was resting against his chest, just below his shoulder.

_Huh? _he thought. _Wh-when did _that _happen? _

He watched her sleep for a few minutes, reluctant to wake her when she looked so … peaceful. He observed the gentle rise and fall of her chest, and felt the small hiss of breath from her rosy lips. He leaned down and smelled her mikan-and-money scent.

She stirred in his arms and sat up. "Good morning, Zo-" she stopped in midsentence, looking around wildly. "Huh? Where am I? What happened? What did you do to me, you pervert?"

"Nothing," he growled, annoyed. "I woke up like this."

Realization flooded her eyes as the events of the previous day came back to her. "Oh … sorry. I was just startled." She raised her hands and looked at them in wonder. "I'm me again!"

"I know," he said. Wondering if she would punch him for what he was about to do, he leaned down and whispered in her ear, "That's the way I prefer it, you know."

Perhaps it was the fact that she had just woken up. Perhaps it was everything they had been through together in the last 24 hours. Perhaps it was the way that his strong arms held her close, and the warmth she was getting from his body.

But whatever the reason, Nami didn't push him away. Instead, she raised her lips to his and …

Voices sounded right outside the door.

"Hey, Sanji, what's this crystal ball thing doing on the ship? Did you bring it here?"

"No, Luffy, I didn't … where'd you get that? Here, let me see it."

Zoro and Nami looked at each other in panic.

There was a brilliant flash of light.


End file.
